Overall Rating: 6.7
This episode would have been better, IMHO, if the roommate had not, in fact, turned out to be evil.
Plot Synopsis:
BuffyGuide has the details.
The Skinny:
Here's the thing...having experienced college roommates from hell, and having learned something from every such experience, I think this episode fails to live up to Buffy's usual standards of producing a mature message while still echoing the thoughts and feelings of its' target demographic. I get that teens and young adults fear that first experience of having to live with someone they don't even know. I hated roommates in college...one of who routinely sexiled me and intentionally moved my stuff around to confuse and trip me (I'm legally blind...you can't move my things and expect me to see them). I get that this is a struggle for all of us...especially those of us who never had to live in the same room with siblings growing up (and ESPECIALLY only children like Buffy). I even giggle like an idiot with some of the passive-aggressive and then aggressive-aggressive things that Buffy and Kathy do to each other when they realize they don't like each other. :)
But Buffy, up until now has been about sharing the frequently immature, often selfish, and yet undeniably real emotions of the teenage subset and then explaining why those feelings are unhealthy, misdirected, or otherwise unhelpful and why mature people are able to move past them. Take, for example, the third season episode "Earshot." Here, Buffy hears the very real feelings and thoughts of everyone at the school and realizes that her selfish fixation on her own problems is exactly the same as the selfish fixations of everyone else - that teenagers think their own problems are astronomically humongous and when no one expresses an interest, they think negatively about the world, when in fact no one expresses that interest because they all have the same inward focus. Part of growing up is learning to look outward, not inward...to solve your own negative feelings by helping someone else in need. Earshot commiserated with teens everywhere - their feelings are real and not to be made light of - and then explained beautifully exactly how to deal with those real feelings in a mature fashion. That is Buffy at its' finest.
Here, however, we've got Buffy in a very common teenage bind - she doesn't like her roommate - and then it turns out her roommate is in fact EVIL! And the fight that ensues completely explains Buffy's inability to handle this chick and her saccherin music preferences. What a horrible thing is that to say to teenagers - your problems with your college roommates are caused by them...you're not at fault at all? Really? I have news for all of you...YOU ARE ALL AT FAULT. Somewhat at least. The fault may not be EVEN...but I can tell you that my first college roommate wound up hating me and going out of his way to torment me at least in part because I wasn't flexible enough to make the roommate situation work (as well as in part because he also wasn't flexible or considerate enough). Monstervision should illuminate the human condition in ways that lead somewhere noble. This episode leads straight to the kind of selfish introspective "me culture" that has infested today's young adults. If I can't get along with my roommate...it must be because she's a bitch. For shame.
The bottom line here is that we've got a very entertaining episode that ends with an unsatifying THUD. It's well written and directed...the camera-work is very interesting...the acting is above par...but the message is absent. It's a potentially relevant and great episode ruined by a heartless, illogical message. It would ahve been far more appealing to me if Buffy and Kathy had come to blows and Kathy had moved on - perfectly human and NOT evil - and this had left Buffy feeling like a bit of a failure. Because, right up until we found out she was a demon, anyone rational watching this show shold have been thinking (as the Scooby gang thought) that Buffy was being a selfish twit...and then that she was going insane over some very minor issues. This should have ended with Buffy learning something about how self-important she was and how to do better next time. Any other ending sells the wrong morality, if you ask me.
Writing: 8.0
The script is full of giggles and the show is very well put together. Can't fault them on writing technique other than the weird "but MOOOOOOM!" moment with the demon and a few cheesy one-liners during the last fight scene.
Acting: 8.0
SMG and Dagney Kerr (Kathy) played off each other very well...solid performances all around, I'd say, though nothing truly awe inspiring.
Message: 3.0
Half-credit for getting into the teen mindset well, yet again proving the writers have a very good understanding how teenagers think and feel. But the rest is a frustrating shallow FAIL.
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